Question

A bouncing ball is an example of an anharmonic oscillator. If you quadruple the maximum height, what happens to the period? (Assume that the ball keeps returning almost to the same height.)

Short answer

If the quadruple the maximum height, the time period increases four-time

Step-by-step solution

Bouncing ball

A bouncing ball is an example of an anharmonic oscillator, as amplitude is decease so period also decreases too.

Relation between height and period of the bouncing ball

As the amplitude is directly proportional to the time for bouncing the ball.

$h\infty T$

So, the amplitude increases four times, and the period also increases four times.